Susan Bugay traveled from out of state to hear a Contra Costa judge's final pronouncement Friday -- a sentence of death for the man who raped and killed her 5-year-old daughter, Angela, nearly 20 years ago.

"It's hard, but I'm relieved," Bugay said outside the Martinez courtroom where Larry Christopher Graham, dressed in a jailhouse uniform, had shown no emotion as Superior Court Judge Barbara Zuniga delivered his sentence, which upheld a jury's verdict of death in October. "I'm just very relieved that justice was served. I'm glad it worked out this way."

Graham, 51, abducted Angela from the Antioch apartment complex where he and the Bugay family lived and took the girl to a remote field where he raped, sodomized and asphyxiated her. Authorities found her buried nude body about a week later in November 1983.

The crime was one of a series of baffling child abductions during the 1980s that terrified Bay Area residents. The 5-year-old girl's killing seemed unsolvable until new DNA evidence led to Graham's arrest in 1996.

On Friday, Graham's attorneys fought unsuccessfully to win a new trial for him, arguing that a juror had disregarded evidence during the penalty phase of the trial and talked about the case with courthouse security staff.

The defense also tried but failed to convince the judge that the jury's verdict of death should be reduced to life in prison without parole.

Zuniga noted that Graham had left Angela "in a shallow grave in a desolate field where animals gnawed at her body while her mother wondered about what had happened to her."

Held at the Martinez jail since his arrest, Graham managed to keep his composure throughout years of court hearings and a three-month trial. Only once did he show emotion -- expressing shock and dismay last August when jurors found him guilty of the crime.

But according to a probation report released Friday, Graham's trial "was a period of great pain for the defendant." During the past two years in jail, he has been taking a Bible study class.

Graham, who had dated Susan Bugay briefly before Angela's killing, declined to address the court Friday, and he refused last month to talk about the crime with probation officials. Graham declined a request from The Chronicle for an interview last week.

Contra Costa Deputy District Attorney Barry Grove indicated that even if Graham wanted to say something, it would not be an apology. "I have never seen any remorse from Larry Graham," he told reporters after sentencing. "Ever."